Fedora Weekly News Issue 256

Welcome to Fedora Weekly News Issue 256[1] for the week ending December 15, 2010. What follows are some highlights from this issue.

Our issue starts off with announcements from the Project, including some revisions to the Fedora packaging guidelines and a call for Fedora 15 Test Days. In Marketing news, a review of the team's activity and list discussion. Fedora In the News brings three trade press articles about Fedora this past week. In Ambassador news, eight new Ambassadors this week, and a summary of discussion on the Ambassadors and FAmSCo mailing lists. In Quality Assurance news, a hands-on bugzapping session at FOSS.in and details on the latest bugzappers meeting. Our issue finishes off with security related packages released in the past week for Fedora 13 and 14.

An audio version of some issues of FWN - FAWN - are available! You can listen to existing issues[2] on the Internet Archive. If anyone is interested in helping spread the load of FAWN production, please contact us!

If you are interested in contributing to Fedora Weekly News, please see our 'join' page[3]. We welcome reader feedback: news@lists.fedoraproject.org

Changes to the Packaging Guidelines

"Here are the latest set of changes to the Fedora Packaging Guidelines:

A new page has been added which describes how to deal with bundled libraries when you find them in your package[2]

Some clarification has been added to the sections dealing with bundled libraries, specifically that:

In this RPM packaging context, the definition of the term 'library' includes: compiled third party source code resulting in shared or static linkable files, interpreted third party source code such as Python, PHP and others. At this time JavaScript intended to be served to a web browser is specifically exempted from this but this will likely change in the future[3]

Also, a note was added to make it clear that multiple licensing scenarios may be a good indicator of a bundled library situation[4]

A section has been added to the Packaging:Guidelines#Changelog entry describing the acceptable methods of having multiple changelog entries per release[5]

A new example of a reason an exception for bundling libraries might be granted has been added to the guidelines. If the library is being bundled because it is a snapshot of a newer release of the library needed for new features, you may have grounds for an exception. See the complete policy for details on when an exception might be granted for this reasoning[6]

Fedora has always implied that the update path from Fedora release to Fedora release and from Fedora release to updates should be maintained but there wasn't an explicit statement in the Guidelines. Well, there is now[7]

The guidelines have been updated to indicate that %doc files must not have executable permissions[8]

The section on Requiring Base Package was clarified, as the original language involving -libs packages may have been confusing[9]

These guidelines (and changes) were approved by the Fedora Packaging Committee (FPC).

Many thanks to Steven Garcia, Nils Philippsen, FESCo and all of the members of the FPC, for assisting in drafting, refining, and passing these guidelines.

As a reminder: The Fedora Packaging Guidelines are living documents! If you find something missing, incorrect, or in need of revision, you can suggest a draft change. The procedure for this is documented here[10]

Call for Fedora 15 Test Days

"Hi, everyone! I've already spoken to some developers with big features for F15 to arrange Test Days, but I just wanted to send out a general call to remind developers that the Test Day process is available for any big changes you have landing for F15 (or even little changes, we're not fussy :>). Test Days are testing events where we co-ordinate a set of test cases, and special test images if this is needed / helpful, and try to get a group of testers plus developers online on IRC around the same time to help do some well-organized testing with a short feedback loop between testers and developers. The QA group can organize the event for you (we just tell you when to show up on IRC), help you organize the event, or get out of the way and let you do it yourself - whatever you like.

It's quite pencil-y right now, so if you really want one of the already-taken days, we can probably arrange it. We can also run Test Days on days other than Thursday if necessary, but we try not to run too many in a single week, and stick to Thursdays when we can as it's quite a convenient day.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Here's the Test Day SOP, which tells you how to put a test day together[3]"

Fedora Events

Fedora events are the exclusive and source of marketing, learning and meeting all the fellow community people around you. So, please mark your agenda with the following events to consider attending or volunteering near you!

Marketing

This week Mel Chua opened with a reflection[1] about launching software and openness, pointing to an interesting article.

Pascal Calarco shared what we have gathered with the Fedora Weekly News Readers Survey[2]

Robyn Bergeron[3] pointed to an article comparing Ubuntu vs. Fedora. What started a debate with Misha Shnurapet[4] stating that will be a great idea to take user data in the installation process and skip post installation. Sergey Podushkin[5] pointed that is feasible. Stephen John Smoogen[6] pointed that post install procedure is something that people asked for. Sergey[7] expressed that should be end user option.

Paul W. Frields[8] commented that there is need in the microbloging operations due a change in HootSuite. Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier[9] make the need of teams controlling a single feed and feature request for StatusNet. Jan Wildeboer[10] offered BrdcstIt as a AGPLv3 solution.

As any other Tuesday, Marketing meeting took place and minutes are available to the public[11]

Jackass IT: Stunts, idiocy, and hero hacks (Infoworld)

Heherson Pagcaliwagan forwarded[1] a posting on the Unity Desktop possibly coming to Fedora:

"Jackass IT stunt No. 1: Route city services through a laptop. Ever wonder whether you could route an entire city network through a laptop running Fedora? Take a seat. Or better yet, leave the chair for your laptop. You'll need to balance it somewhere to keep city services up and operational through a two-day snowstorm.

[snip]

After a feverish half-hour configuring the switch and setting up 802.1q trunking and routing on a Dell Latitude running Fedora Linux, the city network was back up and running, with all traffic routing through a single interface on the laptop balanced on a chair in the data center."

Robyn Bergeron forwarded[1] a comparison of current Fedora and other linux distributions:

"The truth is that there is a distro for everyone. If you want some of the latest technologies, especially in terms of underlying system code, virtual machines and other of-themoment tech, Fedora is a good bet. If you want to have a friendlier desktop experience where your every whim is catered for, Ubuntu would be better for your needs.

And, while we're on the subject, if you want to run KDE, you are probably better off with OpenSUSE. There are certainly more than enough Linuxes to go around."

Kévin Raymond asked for feedback [8] on whether creating a mailing list for EMEA would help coordinate decisions for the region. Within the thread [9]Caius Chance supported [10] the idea of copying important information to the local list. Another aspect that was discussed was the judicious and proper usage of tags to specify regions which would find the information interesting

Maria Gracia Leandro Lombardo posted [15] a mail asking "What's really needed to be an Ambassador?" and added a few ideas which can help define this role. The resulting thread [16] included varied inputs and suggestions including one [17] by Larry Cafiero expressing support for the list of ideas proposed in the original mail

Test Days

The Fedora 15 Test Day calendar is starting to take shape, and you can see what events are planned so far on the Wiki page[1]. The first Test Day slot is 2011-01-27. If you would like to propose a main track Test Day for the Fedora 15 cycle, please contact the QA team via email or IRC, or file a ticket in QA Trac[2].

Hands-on Bugzapping session at FOSS.in

Siddhesh Poyarekar announced his intention[1] to run a hands-on introduction to bug triage at FOSS.in[2], a major F/OSS event in India. The event will take place during the Fedora mini-conference on 2010-12-16. Rahul Sundaram will help him with this effort[3].

Bugzappers component prioritization

Also at the Bugzappers meeting, the group agreed it would be beneficial to look at which of the critical path components (the packages Bugzappers aim to work on with the most priority) are actually very commonly subject to bug reports which require triage, and prioritize those components, listing them on the components page[1] in a separate table, to make it easier for new triagers to pick a component which will be practical to work on. Andrew Roth volunteered to work on this.